EDIT: D'oh! Promoting characters is a challenge. I don't want to waste any more time on Silver/Bronze than necessary.

Son of a bitch. This is the second time I've gone and promoted a bunch (being out of respec cards and all) just 2-3 days before they announce something like this.

Sigh ... me too. At least I've gotten to the point where I don't bother with Bronze anymore. Having the first point unlocked when you level actually helps, especially if you have a Krogan in that class. Just put one point in Rage and one point in Fortification/Barrier/TechArmor and give yourself a Striker.

Hell, I successfully ran an Asari Vanguard at Rank 1 on Silver over the weekend. Then ran her up to Level 15 or so on Silver runs with only the first two ticks in the Fitness tree. I must be getting better at this game.

Well ... so far my experience with the new DLC hasn't gone so great. I purchased 800 BioWare points to show my support for the new content. Bought two PSPs at 240 points each, neither of which registered ... so now I'm on hold in a chat session while Shashank investigates my issue.

All of this holding has given me time to reflect on the (lack of) value in 800 BioWare points. This is the second BWP purchase I've made - the first was 800 points when the Earth DLC dropped. I'd thought about spending $10 each time new DLC dropped in show of support, but I'd forgotten how little $10 actually buys in Spectre Packs. 800 points can get you five Spectre Packs @ 160 points each for 5 rare items, or two PSPs @ 240 points and two SPs @ 160 points for a total of 6 rares.

So ... a maximum guarantee of 6 rare items for $10. That's crazy town. This is "Free DLC" for a reason. If they lower the costs of PSPs to something reasonable (like 160 BWP) I will consider it ... but there's no fucking way I'm going to pay $10 of my hard earned money for 6 items (which I don't even get to use immediately).

BTW:

Shashank wrote:

I am escalating the issue to the senior team they will look into your issue and make the issue resolve for you.

They will contact you back through Email with the solution for your issue within 4-5 days.

I just slogged a few silver matches with the Volus Adept... and it plays like nothing else I've seen. It cant attach to things, it cant see over things, it dont have any melee to speak about, it becomes short cloak for normal melee, and puts a shield down for heavy. Did decently well in silver, although I came last with a geth plasma SMG to get the 200% cooldown. Also, saw a few play with the turian, it has a jetpack, how freaking cool is that.

Now what it can do on the other hand, is VERY Interresting. It has it's spheres that lowers your recharge time by 10% / 15% per orb, and at rank 6 you can either spec for damage so it can stack up to 45% extra damage taken on targets, or you can spec for a 4th orb for 40/60% cooldown reduction. Each orb also does 450-550 dmg on target depending how you spec, and it's bursty, so if you make the orbs fly, then wait for cooldown, you can launch the orbs, reput the orbs and launch the rest, all within something like <5s. So you might to up to 4000dmg that way if it's specced for 4th sphere that. Decent enough.

Where it gets fun though is that it together with the next ability, shield boost.It immediately replenishes 1100(+30%) of your teams shields within 5m radius, then another 750(+30%) within 3 seconds. And at 3.7s cooldown, - the sphere reduction, you have about 1500 shields < every 3 seconds for your whole team.

All in all, probably pretty worthless for pubbie games, but with a gathered crowd that doesnt mind one of their team not shooting that much, they can enjoy 45% bonus dmg on all elites and replenished shields all the way round every 3 seconds.

What I'm leary of is the 6 rank in sphere. One extra sphere for another 1000 dmg direct damage and use spheres as main power, or the possibility of stacking 3x15% dmg for 6 seconds on something. Yeah, I only specced mine for 3/6/6/5/6 now, because without fitness he's squishy. And I specced the volus training rank 5 for extra shield boost.

That doest take into acount any combos he might be able to do with stasis/orbs or if he can set off other biotics with the orbs.

Bought 10 PSPs, leveled up the AT-Raider from V to X; unlocked Havoc and Ghost characters, Collector Assault and sniper rifles, the First Responder kit (level 1), and got a bunch of IV consumables. No UR drops. I'm not exactly motivated to go spending more credits ... going to wait until more stuff is released and they refund my BWP before another mini-binge in the multiplayer store.

Cryo Explosion Power Combo- Like Biotic Explosion or Tech Burst combos, this combo can now occur without killing the target.- The target must still be fully frozen to be detonated.- Damage increased from [50-125] to [75-200]- Impact radius decreased from [3-5] meters to [2-4] meters

Fire Explosion Power Combo- Like Biotic Explosion or Tech Burst combos, this combo can now occur without killing the target.- Impact radius decreased from [3-6] meters to [2-4] meters- Damage decreased from [150-375] to [100-250]- Damage-over-time damage decreased from [20-50] to [12.5-31.25]

Bug Fixes- Fixed issue where you could get an unlimited number of the new character cards- Fixed issue allowing players to see the unreleased Retaliation kits in the character selection screen

Also, here are some additional changes that were included with the Retaliation DLC or missed in our patch notes.- Geth Pyros can now stomp players who are downed- Marauders can now stomp players who are downed- Atlas now moves faster- Atlas rocket will add a small damage-over-time effect on players that prevents shield regeneration for a short time- Geth Prime drone now attacks players- New map layout for Firebase White and Firebase Glacier- Wave changes to Geth faction to account for new Geth Bomber enemy- Wave changes to Cerberus faction to account for the new Dragoon enemy- Weapons in the lobby show their rarity as a border around the weapon- Can now see the last pack you purchased in the store- Consumables now show statistics in their descriptions- Destroyer's missile launcher now shows "Hawk Missile Launcher" in the kill feed instead of "Missile Launcher"- When 3 of 4 players are ready in the lobby, there is a 20 second countdown before the match automatically begins- Promoting a character preservers name and appearance, and doesn't assign any talent points- Carnage power can now set up Fire Explosion power combos

Unlocked the new Turian and two Volus characters, along with bringing up the Raider to X. The new hazard version of Reactor is hilarious. One of the team was inside when someone else triggered the "purge", resulting in a bit of a surprise for the inhabitant

The Havoc is kinda cool with the rocket pack, but he's still a vanguard. Also gotta be careful with the heavy melee as he jumps up and forward. If you're too close, you can overshoot your target.

Played vs. Collectors on FBW ... pretty intense. It's rather cool that they expanded the map. I'm curious to see what changes they've made on Glacier. Managed 1/2 Gold extracts vs. Collectors so far. It definitely makes things interesting again.

Played a few more rounds, now for gold. Volus felt fine, equipped with an Eviscerator X he had at least a little punch, and felt very nice as a lifesaver putting peoples shields up. Got in to play with a few crazy russians that farmed the new FBW/G/G. And yeah, the extra dmg + shotgun + shield recharge worked fine. Points, Abysmal, they really should have defensive assist like points for healing and soaking dmg, etc like Battlefield, etc has.

Switched out to my lvl 14 destroyer instead and equipped the black widow and harrier, both lvl 3, also equipped Drill rounds III and Assault Rifle Amp III for a total of 60% extra dmt with 40% ignore armor... ouch. Even a lvl 14 destroyer has no problem in gold with the above weapons. 60K points in gold with crazy robot russian isnt too shabby. And considerint the lvl IV ammo perks are almost double up at times... yowsa, that's alot of damage.

Most annoying thing though, way more annoying then turrents have ever been, is the Geth Bomber. It can manage to sneak up on you and suddenly half your screen is flashing red because of a bomb raid of 5 grenades all around you. Died quite a few times to those. The new layout of FBW though is nice, I like it. More go arounds, but still familiar enough to work decently for farming, bit less since the bombers can root you out if you arent carefull.

Bought another three packs and hit kindof another jackpot on two of em.1st one - Turian Ghost, Graal Spike Thrower IXBad one - krogan sentinel, krogan soldier, both of which I've had for ages.Jackpot - Piranha I, Acolyte I, Tempest X, Engineering Kit I

Now to see how well the Acolyte works as a shield stripper as some of you have talked about. Now for the question, what's good mods for the Piranha and Acolyte. Piercing or extra dmg on the shotgun?

The N7 Headquarters is awesome! Information arranged very usably, and lets you know a LOT of detail. For example, I now know there's some kits that would make my life MUCH easier.SummaryLast updated at 2012-10-09 23:26:21 GMTTime played: 144H 20M 47S Games played: 422 Current Credits: 54,620 Leaderboard: #135,623 (Top 11%) Leaderboard: #61,745 (Top 64%)

This DLC is really fun. So far I've played against Collectors, played on the new and improved FBW, and fought new enemies in Cerberus. Love the new challenges, and REALLY appreciate the fact that the tool tips for Ammo, Rails, and Armor packs now tell you exactly what they do - no more guesswork or hours searching social.bioware.com for information on what bonuses an item provides.

Gold is a lot more difficult, and it seems like there is going to be no more hammering space while you wait for a teammate to revive you - you'd better use a medigel quickly, or you and anyone who comes to save you is going to get overrun. Dragons are nearly as annoying as Phantoms - if you thought getting overrun by three Phantoms was a pain in the ass, try two Dragons and two Phantoms.

Still haven't played with any new kit, haven't played Geth or Reapers, but having a blast.

It feels like an entirely new game. Those of us who wanted Gold games to be challenging again, definitely got what we asked for.

This DLC is really fun. So far I've played against Collectors, played on the new and improved FBW, and fought new enemies in Cerberus. Love the new challenges, and REALLY appreciate the fact that the tool tips for Ammo, Rails, and Armor packs now tell you exactly what they do - no more guesswork or hours searching social.bioware.com for information on what bonuses an item provides.

- - -

It feels like an entirely new game. Those of us who wanted Gold games to be challenging again, definitely got what we asked for.

These are both so true. Very much a new and very enjoyable game. Too bad it still has crappy netcode though... and the stuff about bioware points. I looked at it to get closer to getting stuff, but with PSP's being very expensive in dollars, and not really guaranteeing anything, I just felt it wasnt worth it.

Also, eagle IV, just when I've started using the Hurricane which is awesome in close quarters. Much easier to overlook your stuff though.Still missing 3 ultra rare weapons that would be nice, javelin, scorpion and particle rifle, except for that I'm pretty much set and only want new classes. Missing a bunch from the various DLC's.

Also, eagle IV, just when I've started using the Hurricane which is awesome in close quarters. Much easier to overlook your stuff though.

I was using the Eagle I as a backup weapon until they fixed SMGULM. Now it isn't worth it to carry it, as it's heavier than the Hurricane I w/ULM. Silly.

Quote:

Still missing 3 ultra rare weapons that would be nice, javelin, scorpion and particle rifle, except for that I'm pretty much set and only want new classes. Missing a bunch from the various DLC's.

I still don't have a Scorpion, despite having a (prior to the days new DLC) maxed rare manifest. You aren't missing much with the Javelin, and I can't comment on the Particle Rifle. I think I haven't used it because I'm sore over having attained my highest UR levels IV of both Javelin and Particle Rifle, two of what I feel are the least useful of the URs.

So the Collectors on Toxic Dagger on Silver.......god damn that was the hardest Silver match I've played in a while. Lvl 15 Fury looked like a rag doll. And so did a Lvl 18 Krogan Soldier. Definitely different play style required. Which makes it fun, but Silver may not be an easy win anymore either (for me, anyways).

In lieu of extra damage, I tend to take Smart Choke since it puts 50% more pellets on target and basically also increases the range by 50%. I always feel underwhelmed when I take extra damage since a lot of it is still whiffing around the enemy. I usually run Smart Choke and Shredder mod unless it's a particularly accurate shotgun to begin with. If I'm running the Wraith or Eviscerator, I usually take extra damage.